Ian Ross

About me: I’m a development economist specialising in the economics and financing of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services. After 10 years in WASH consulting, research and advocacy, I’m now undertaking a PhD in economics at LSHTM. I research the costs and cost-effectiveness of urban sanitation, with a focus on an ongoing controlled trial of a shared sanitation intervention in Maputo, Mozambique. Before joining LSHTM, I established and grew a six-strong water team at Oxford Policy Management, leading WASH consulting projects for clients including the World Bank, DFID and UNICEF. Prior to that, I was in WaterAid’s policy team working on a variety of research and advocacy. My work has taken me to 14 countries across Africa and Asia.

The difference my research makes: cost-effectiveness analyses are crucial for making decisions between different intervention options. Cost analyses are a crucial input into those, but also important in their own right for financial planning by governments and service providers. Evidence on both is severely lacking for the sanitation sector in developing countries. A better understanding, developed through my research, will add to the body of knowledge supporting efficient decisions at national and international level.

Supervisors: Giulia Greco, Oliver Cumming and Graham Medley

Selected publications:


Pathway: International Development

Location: LSHTM Department of Global Health and Development

Blog: www.WASHeconomics.com

Twitter: twitter.com/IanRossUK